[gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[Walter Dnes]

  I got an Acer Aspire 4551-2728 earlier this year, and now I have some
spare time on my hands, and I've got it almost 100% functional under 64
bit Gentoo linux.  The networking was dead easy, as was the video (once
I was pointed to the instructions).  The webcam took some digging, but
I figured it out, with "Mr. Google's" help.  The last item that doesn't
work yet is the internal microphone.

  Has anybody gotten an internal microphone on any Acer laptop working?
My Google searches have found a couple of references to "it works out of
the box" under some versions of Ubuntu, but no technical details, which
doesn't really help.  Here are a few snippets from alsa-info...

!!DMI Information
!!---------------
Manufacturer:      Acer
Product Name:      Aspire 4551


!!Kernel Information
!!------------------
Kernel release:    2.6.36-gentoo-r5
Operating System:  GNU/Linux
Architecture:      x86_64
Processor:         AMD Athlon(tm) II P320 Dual-Core Processor
SMP Enabled:       Yes

!!Soundcards recognised by ALSA
!!-----------------------------
 0 [SB             ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
                      HDA ATI SB at 0xd0400000 irq 16
 1 [HDMI           ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI
                      HDA ATI HDMI at 0xd0110000 irq 19


!!PCI Soundcards installed in the system
!!--------------------------------------
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
01:05.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Device 970f


!!Advanced information - PCI Vendor/Device/Susbsystem ID's
!!--------------------------------------------------------
00:14.2 0403: 1002:4383 (rev 40)
  Subsystem: 1025:0372
--
01:05.1 0403: 1002:970f
  Subsystem: 1025:0372

!!HDA-Intel Codec information
!!---------------------------
--startcollapse--
Codec: Realtek ALC272X
Address: 0
AFG Function Id: 0x1 (unsol 1)
Vendor Id: 0x10ec0272
Subsystem Id: 0x10250372
Revision Id: 0x100001

!!Aplay/Arecord output
!!------------

APLAY

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC272X Analog [ALC272X Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: ATI HDMI [ATI HDMI]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

ARECORD

**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC272X Analog [ALC272X Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>

Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[Hung Dang]

I guest you may need to play around with the mixer (KDE,GNOME) or
alsamixer to enable internal microphone. I have to enable
recording/capture in GNOME volume applet to make the internal microphone
worked on my D630.

Hope this help,
Hung

On 02/12/11 18:45, Walter Dnes wrote:
>   I got an Acer Aspire 4551-2728 earlier this year, and now I have some
> spare time on my hands, and I've got it almost 100% functional under 64
> bit Gentoo linux.  The networking was dead easy, as was the video (once
> I was pointed to the instructions).  The webcam took some digging, but
> I figured it out, with "Mr. Google's" help.  The last item that doesn't
> work yet is the internal microphone.
>
>   Has anybody gotten an internal microphone on any Acer laptop working?
> My Google searches have found a couple of references to "it works out of
> the box" under some versions of Ubuntu, but no technical details, which
> doesn't really help.  Here are a few snippets from alsa-info...
>
> !!DMI Information
> !!---------------
> Manufacturer:      Acer
> Product Name:      Aspire 4551
>
>
> !!Kernel Information
> !!------------------
> Kernel release:    2.6.36-gentoo-r5
> Operating System:  GNU/Linux
> Architecture:      x86_64
> Processor:         AMD Athlon(tm) II P320 Dual-Core Processor
> SMP Enabled:       Yes
>
> !!Soundcards recognised by ALSA
> !!-----------------------------
>  0 [SB             ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
>                       HDA ATI SB at 0xd0400000 irq 16
>  1 [HDMI           ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI
>                       HDA ATI HDMI at 0xd0110000 irq 19
>
>
> !!PCI Soundcards installed in the system
> !!--------------------------------------
> 00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
> 01:05.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Device 970f
>
>
> !!Advanced information - PCI Vendor/Device/Susbsystem ID's
> !!--------------------------------------------------------
> 00:14.2 0403: 1002:4383 (rev 40)
>   Subsystem: 1025:0372
> --
> 01:05.1 0403: 1002:970f
>   Subsystem: 1025:0372
>
> !!HDA-Intel Codec information
> !!---------------------------
> --startcollapse--
> Codec: Realtek ALC272X
> Address: 0
> AFG Function Id: 0x1 (unsol 1)
> Vendor Id: 0x10ec0272
> Subsystem Id: 0x10250372
> Revision Id: 0x100001
>
> !!Aplay/Arecord output
> !!------------
>
> APLAY
>
> **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
> card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC272X Analog [ALC272X Analog]
>   Subdevices: 1/1
>   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
> card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: ATI HDMI [ATI HDMI]
>   Subdevices: 1/1
>   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
>
> ARECORD
>
> **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
> card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC272X Analog [ALC272X Analog]
>   Subdevices: 1/1
>   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
>

Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[Yohan Pereira]

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On Sunday 13 Feb 2011 05:15:35 AM Walter Dnes wrote:
>   Has anybody gotten an internal microphone on any Acer laptop working?
> My Google searches have found a couple of references to "it works out of
> the box" under some versions of Ubuntu, but no technical details, which
> doesn't really help.  Here are a few snippets from alsa-info...

did you add alsasound to the boot process?

i went 6 months trying to figure out what was wrong with my microphone until i 
realised that i forgot to do that!

also unmute the microphones using alsamixer (in alsa-utils) like Hung 
sugested.

-- 

- Yohan Pereira

"A man can do as he will, but not will as he will" - Schopenhauer

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Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[Walter Dnes]

On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 12:18:40PM +0530, Yohan Pereira wrote

> did you add alsasound to the boot process?
> 
> i went 6 months trying to figure out what was wrong with my microphone
> until i realised that i forgot to do that!
> 
> also unmute the microphones using alsamixer (in alsa-utils) like
> Hung sugested.

  I had already unmuted everything before posting my question.  With
enough microphone boost, I have a hissing noise.  I didn't know about
alsasound being a daemon until today.  With alsasound running, mencoder
and ffmpeg and arecord now *THINK* that they are recording a sound
channel.  That's an "improvement", because they used to say "noaudio"
before.  But still nothing gets recorded.  Here is a sample command I
tried.

arecord -f cd -t wav -c 2 -D plughw:0 foobar.wav

  Maybe I should go and buy an external microphone already.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>

Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[Yohan Pereira]

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On Sunday 13 Feb 2011 05:15:35 AM Walter Dnes wrote:
> My Google searches have found a couple of references to "it works out of
> the box" under some versions of Ubuntu, but no technical details, which
> doesn't really help.

why dont you try a ubuntu live cd or so? :P
alteast thats not as bad as the usual "does it work on windows?".

-- 

- Yohan Pereira

"A man can do as he will, but not will as he will" - Schopenhauer

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Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[Mick]

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On Sunday 13 February 2011 22:10:42 Walter Dnes wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 12:18:40PM +0530, Yohan Pereira wrote
> 
> > did you add alsasound to the boot process?
> > 
> > i went 6 months trying to figure out what was wrong with my microphone
> > until i realised that i forgot to do that!
> > 
> > also unmute the microphones using alsamixer (in alsa-utils) like
> > Hung sugested.
> 
>   I had already unmuted everything before posting my question.  With
> enough microphone boost, I have a hissing noise.  I didn't know about
> alsasound being a daemon until today.  With alsasound running, mencoder
> and ffmpeg and arecord now *THINK* that they are recording a sound
> channel.  That's an "improvement", because they used to say "noaudio"
> before.  But still nothing gets recorded.  Here is a sample command I
> tried.
> 
> arecord -f cd -t wav -c 2 -D plughw:0 foobar.wav
> 
>   Maybe I should go and buy an external microphone already.

I do not have your hardware, but on my laptop I could not get the microphone 
to work until I switched on the digital capture and selected "Digital" under 
Input Source in alsamixer.  For some reason it would not work with any other 
setting.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[Mick]

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On Friday 18 February 2011 09:45:44 Mick wrote:
> On Sunday 13 February 2011 22:10:42 Walter Dnes wrote:
> > On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 12:18:40PM +0530, Yohan Pereira wrote
> > 
> > > did you add alsasound to the boot process?
> > > 
> > > i went 6 months trying to figure out what was wrong with my microphone
> > > until i realised that i forgot to do that!
> > > 
> > > also unmute the microphones using alsamixer (in alsa-utils) like
> > > Hung sugested.
> > > 
> >   I had already unmuted everything before posting my question.  With
> > 
> > enough microphone boost, I have a hissing noise.  I didn't know about
> > alsasound being a daemon until today.  With alsasound running, mencoder
> > and ffmpeg and arecord now *THINK* that they are recording a sound
> > channel.  That's an "improvement", because they used to say "noaudio"
> > before.  But still nothing gets recorded.  Here is a sample command I
> > tried.
> > 
> > arecord -f cd -t wav -c 2 -D plughw:0 foobar.wav
> > 
> >   Maybe I should go and buy an external microphone already.
> 
> I do not have your hardware, but on my laptop I could not get the
> microphone to work until I switched on the digital capture and selected
> "Digital" under Input Source in alsamixer.  For some reason it would not
> work with any other setting.

Perhaps because there is no analogue audio capture on my machine ... ?

$ cat /proc/asound/devices 
  2:        : timer
  3: [ 0- 0]: digital audio playback
  4: [ 0- 0]: digital audio capture
  5: [ 0- 0]: hardware dependent
  6: [ 0]   : control
  7: [ 1- 3]: digital audio playback
  8: [ 1- 0]: hardware dependent
  9: [ 1]   : control
 10:        : sequencer

HTH.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[Walter Dnes]

On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 09:49:46AM +0000, Mick wrote

> Perhaps because there is no analogue audio capture on my machine ... ?
> 
> $ cat /proc/asound/devices 
>   2:        : timer
>   3: [ 0- 0]: digital audio playback
>   4: [ 0- 0]: digital audio capture
>   5: [ 0- 0]: hardware dependent
>   6: [ 0]   : control
>   7: [ 1- 3]: digital audio playback
>   8: [ 1- 0]: hardware dependent
>   9: [ 1]   : control
>  10:        : sequencer

  My system is very similar...

[aa1][root][~] cat /proc/asound/devices
  2:        : timer
  3:        : sequencer
  4: [ 0- 0]: digital audio playback
  5: [ 0- 0]: digital audio capture
  6: [ 0- 0]: hardware dependent
  7: [ 0]   : control
  8: [ 1- 3]: digital audio playback
  9: [ 1- 0]: hardware dependent
 10: [ 1]   : control

> I do not have your hardware, but on my laptop I could not get the
> microphone to work until I switched on the digital capture and
> selected "Digital" under Input Source in alsamixer.  For some reason
> it would not work with any other setting.

  What exactly do you mean by "switched on the digital capture"?  In
alsamixer I have all sound capture settings on...

Front Mic Boost 67
Mic Boost 67
Capture 81
Capture 1 81
Digital 83

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>

Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[Mick]

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On Saturday 19 February 2011 22:40:25 Walter Dnes wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 09:49:46AM +0000, Mick wrote
> 
> > Perhaps because there is no analogue audio capture on my machine ... ?
> > 
> > $ cat /proc/asound/devices
> > 
> >   2:        : timer
> >   3: [ 0- 0]: digital audio playback
> >   4: [ 0- 0]: digital audio capture
> >   5: [ 0- 0]: hardware dependent
> >   6: [ 0]   : control
> >   7: [ 1- 3]: digital audio playback
> >   8: [ 1- 0]: hardware dependent
> >   9: [ 1]   : control
> >  
> >  10:        : sequencer
> 
>   My system is very similar...
> 
> [aa1][root][~] cat /proc/asound/devices
>   2:        : timer
>   3:        : sequencer
>   4: [ 0- 0]: digital audio playback
>   5: [ 0- 0]: digital audio capture
>   6: [ 0- 0]: hardware dependent
>   7: [ 0]   : control
>   8: [ 1- 3]: digital audio playback
>   9: [ 1- 0]: hardware dependent
>  10: [ 1]   : control
> 
> > I do not have your hardware, but on my laptop I could not get the
> > microphone to work until I switched on the digital capture and
> > selected "Digital" under Input Source in alsamixer.  For some reason
> > it would not work with any other setting.
> 
>   What exactly do you mean by "switched on the digital capture"?  In
> alsamixer I have all sound capture settings on...
> 
> Front Mic Boost 67
> Mic Boost 67
> Capture 81
> Capture 1 81
> Digital 83

Ah ... mine have more.  <F4> in alsamixer brings up all these Capture devices:

Front Mic  67<>67
Mic        67<>67
Capture    80<>80
Capture    80<>80
Digital    61<>61
Digital    33<>33
Input So   Digital Mic  (other options are: Front Mic, Mic)
Input So   Digital Mic  (other options are: Front Mic, Mic)

There's a microphone on the top of the screen and a jack on the front left of 
the keyboard.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[Walter Dnes]

On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 11:54:38PM +0000, Mick wrote

> Ah ... mine have more.  <F4> in alsamixer brings up all these Capture devices:
> 
> Front Mic  67<>67
> Mic        67<>67
> Capture    80<>80
> Capture    80<>80
> Digital    61<>61
> Digital    33<>33
> Input So   Digital Mic  (other options are: Front Mic, Mic)
> Input So   Digital Mic  (other options are: Front Mic, Mic)
> 
> There's a microphone on the top of the screen and a jack on the
> front left of the keyboard.

  Another search on Goggle finally found something, but I'm not sure I
like it.  My card shows up in "lspci -v" as...

00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
        Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 0372
        Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
        Memory at d0400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
        Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel

alsamixer shows...
Card: HDA ATI SB
Chip: Realtek ALC272X 

  One solution I've seen involves modprobing the sound driver with a
parameter.  Problem is I've been using kernel-mode alsa for years and
I'm an absolute newbie on "alsa-driver".  alsa-driver is keyworded
~amd64 but I'm desparate enough to try it.  Maybe even desparate enough
to try the other solution, namely revert to OSS.

  If I want to keyword alsa-driver and install it, I assume that I have
to remove all kernel support for sound, i.e in "make menuconfig"...

< > Sound card support  --->

  Is that correct?  Also, what should I specify in ALSA_CARDS in
/etc/make.conf ?

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>

Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[Elaine C. Sharpe]

In linux.gentoo.user, you wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 11:54:38PM +0000, Mick wrote
>
>> Ah ... mine have more.  <F4> in alsamixer brings up all these Capture devices:
>> 
>> Front Mic  67<>67
>> Mic        67<>67
>> Capture    80<>80
>> Capture    80<>80
>> Digital    61<>61
>> Digital    33<>33
>> Input So   Digital Mic  (other options are: Front Mic, Mic)
>> Input So   Digital Mic  (other options are: Front Mic, Mic)
>> 
>> There's a microphone on the top of the screen and a jack on the
>> front left of the keyboard.
>
>   Another search on Goggle finally found something, but I'm not sure I
> like it.  My card shows up in "lspci -v" as...
>
> 00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
>         Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 0372
>         Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
>         Memory at d0400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
>         Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
>         Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
>
> alsamixer shows...
> Card: HDA ATI SB
> Chip: Realtek ALC272X 
>
>   One solution I've seen involves modprobing the sound driver with a
> parameter.  Problem is I've been using kernel-mode alsa for years and
> I'm an absolute newbie on "alsa-driver".  alsa-driver is keyworded
> ~amd64 but I'm desparate enough to try it.  Maybe even desparate enough
> to try the other solution, namely revert to OSS.
>
>   If I want to keyword alsa-driver and install it, I assume that I have
> to remove all kernel support for sound, i.e in "make menuconfig"...
>
>< > Sound card support  --->
>
>   Is that correct?  

I don't think so. One of my machines is a mac mini with the 
intel HDA chipset, and I don't recall right now whether it 
was alsa-driver, alsa-firnmware, or both but I did get it 
working without disabling audio in the kernel.

>Also, what should I specify in ALSA_CARDS in
> /etc/make.conf ?
>

ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel"

-- 
caveat utilitor 
♫ ❤ ♫ ❤ ♫ ❤ ♫ 

Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[Mick]

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On Sunday 20 February 2011 08:50:48 Elaine C. Sharpe wrote:
> In linux.gentoo.user, you wrote:
> > On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 11:54:38PM +0000, Mick wrote
> > 
> >> Ah ... mine have more.  <F4> in alsamixer brings up all these Capture
> >> devices:
> >> 
> >> Front Mic  67<>67
> >> Mic        67<>67
> >> Capture    80<>80
> >> Capture    80<>80
> >> Digital    61<>61
> >> Digital    33<>33
> >> Input So   Digital Mic  (other options are: Front Mic, Mic)
> >> Input So   Digital Mic  (other options are: Front Mic, Mic)
> >> 
> >> There's a microphone on the top of the screen and a jack on the
> >> front left of the keyboard.
> >> 
> >   Another search on Goggle finally found something, but I'm not sure I
> > 
> > like it.  My card shows up in "lspci -v" as...
> > 
> > 00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev
> > 40)
> > 
> >         Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 0372
> >         Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
> >         Memory at d0400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
> >         Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
> >         Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
> > 
> > alsamixer shows...
> > Card: HDA ATI SB
> > Chip: Realtek ALC272X
> > 
> >   One solution I've seen involves modprobing the sound driver with a
> > 
> > parameter.  Problem is I've been using kernel-mode alsa for years and
> > I'm an absolute newbie on "alsa-driver".  alsa-driver is keyworded
> > ~amd64 but I'm desparate enough to try it.  Maybe even desparate enough
> > to try the other solution, namely revert to OSS.
> > 
> >   If I want to keyword alsa-driver and install it, I assume that I have
> > 
> > to remove all kernel support for sound, i.e in "make menuconfig"...
> >
> >< > Sound card support  --->
> >
> >   Is that correct?
> 
> I don't think so. One of my machines is a mac mini with the
> intel HDA chipset, and I don't recall right now whether it
> was alsa-driver, alsa-firnmware, or both but I did get it
> working without disabling audio in the kernel.
> 
> >Also, what should I specify in ALSA_CARDS in
> >
> > /etc/make.conf ?
> 
> ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel"

Around a couple of years ago my alsa stopped working and was getting some 
errors about not finding the right modules or similar.  Until that moment I 
had it build in the kernel.  I remember raising a bug, only to be told that I 
should rebuild my kernel with alsa drivers as modules, because alsaconf should 
be able to probe them.

Indeed, the Gentoo Alsa Guide still says pretty much the same thing:

"Please note that for ease of use, all examples show ALSA built as modules. It 
is advisable to follow the same as it then allows the use of alsaconf which is 
a boon when you want to configure your card."

I've added some options for my alsa modules in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf, 
e.g.:

  options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=1

HTH.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[Walter Dnes]

On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 12:09:27PM +0000, Mick wrote
> Indeed, the Gentoo Alsa Guide still says pretty much the same thing:
> 
> "Please note that for ease of use, all examples show ALSA built as
> modules. It is advisable to follow the same as it then allows the
> use of alsaconf which is a boon when you want to configure your card."
> 
> I've added some options for my alsa modules in
> /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf, e.g.:
> 
>   options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=1

  This is exasperating.  After re-building alsa sound support as kernel
modules, rather than built into the kernel, I see some improvement.
When I blow into the internal mic I hear it from the laptop speakers.
With mic-boost turned up, I can hear myself echoing when I talk into the
internal mic or into an external mic.  Turn up the boost high enough,
and the external mic generates a mean high-ptched feedback squeal,
unless I also plug in headphones.

  So the hardware is working now, *BUT I STILL CAN'T RECORD THE BLEEPING
THING*.  When I try "ffmpeg -f oss -i /dev/dsp audio.wav" it thinks it's
recording, but the output file is only hiss.   Ditto for the command
"ffmpeg -f alsa -i plughw:0,0 audio.wav".

  I notice that I have a file named /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf but no
alsa-base.conf file.  Should I rename it?

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>

Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[Mick]

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On Monday 21 February 2011 01:33:22 Walter Dnes wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 12:09:27PM +0000, Mick wrote
> 
> > Indeed, the Gentoo Alsa Guide still says pretty much the same thing:
> > 
> > "Please note that for ease of use, all examples show ALSA built as
> > modules. It is advisable to follow the same as it then allows the
> > use of alsaconf which is a boon when you want to configure your card."
> > 
> > I've added some options for my alsa modules in
> > 
> > /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf, e.g.:
> >   options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=1
> 
>   This is exasperating.  After re-building alsa sound support as kernel
> modules, rather than built into the kernel, I see some improvement.
> When I blow into the internal mic I hear it from the laptop speakers.
> With mic-boost turned up, I can hear myself echoing when I talk into the
> internal mic or into an external mic.  Turn up the boost high enough,
> and the external mic generates a mean high-ptched feedback squeal,
> unless I also plug in headphones.
> 
>   So the hardware is working now, *BUT I STILL CAN'T RECORD THE BLEEPING
> THING*.  When I try "ffmpeg -f oss -i /dev/dsp audio.wav" it thinks it's
> recording, but the output file is only hiss.   Ditto for the command
> "ffmpeg -f alsa -i plughw:0,0 audio.wav".
> 
>   I notice that I have a file named /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf but no
> alsa-base.conf file.  Should I rename it?

No, just create your alsa-base.conf and add the desired options in there.

From what you're saying the microphone works now - not sure why it won't 
record ... I'm not the best man to advise on recording because I have never 
tried it.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[YoYo Siska]

On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 08:33:22PM -0500, Walter Dnes wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 12:09:27PM +0000, Mick wrote
> > Indeed, the Gentoo Alsa Guide still says pretty much the same thing:
> > 
> > "Please note that for ease of use, all examples show ALSA built as
> > modules. It is advisable to follow the same as it then allows the
> > use of alsaconf which is a boon when you want to configure your card."
> > 
> > I've added some options for my alsa modules in
> > /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf, e.g.:
> > 
> >   options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=1
> 
>   This is exasperating.  After re-building alsa sound support as kernel
> modules, rather than built into the kernel, I see some improvement.
> When I blow into the internal mic I hear it from the laptop speakers.
> With mic-boost turned up, I can hear myself echoing when I talk into the
> internal mic or into an external mic.  Turn up the boost high enough,
> and the external mic generates a mean high-ptched feedback squeal,
> unless I also plug in headphones.
> 
>   So the hardware is working now, *BUT I STILL CAN'T RECORD THE BLEEPING
> THING*.  When I try "ffmpeg -f oss -i /dev/dsp audio.wav" it thinks it's
> recording, but the output file is only hiss.   Ditto for the command
> "ffmpeg -f alsa -i plughw:0,0 audio.wav".

Seems that the mic works, but is not selected for capture... (routing it
to speakers recording from it are two different things ;)

You basically need to tell alsa which sources to record from, which may
be different from which are just unmuted in the mixer (and thus playing
from the speakers). I've seen a few different sets of alsa controls on
different sound cards that control the record sources, these are the two I remember:

Run alsamixer, pres F4 (capture) and either look for
- a "mic" control (along with CD, Line, Aux,... controls), then make sure it has a red "CAPTURE" text (spacebar
  toggles CAPTURE)
- if you dont't have separate Mic, Line, ... controls, try looking for a
  "Input source" control, you should be able to use up/down arrows to
  change it to mic

Also in both cases make sure a "Capture" control has CAPTURE on too..
You might have more Mic sources two choose from, or you might also have
a "Mic Select" control, with which you can switch between different
mics, so you might have to experiment to find which is the correct
one...

yoyo

Re: [gentoo-user] Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[Walter Dnes]

On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 11:11:54AM +0100, YoYo Siska wrote

> Run alsamixer, pres F4 (capture) and either look for
> - a "mic" control (along with CD, Line, Aux,... controls), then make
> sure it has a red "CAPTURE" text (spacebar toggles CAPTURE)

  Thank you very much.  That was the last step that I was missing.  Both
alsa mode and oss compatibility mode work with their appropriate command
lines now...

ffmpeg -y -f alsa -i plughw:0,0 audio1.wav

ffmpeg -y -f oss  -i /dev/dsp audio2.wav

  Again, thank you very much.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>

[gentoo-user] Re: Anyone get Acer laptop internal microphone working in Gentoo?

[walt]

On 02/21/2011 03:14 PM, Walter Dnes wrote:
  
> ffmpeg -y -f alsa -i plughw:0,0 audio1.wav
>
> ffmpeg -y -f oss  -i /dev/dsp audio2.wav

I understand the /dev/dsp, but where did plughw:0,0 come from?

After googling around a bit, I must say I've rarely seen such
opaque documentation as I've just found for alsa.

I can feel your frustration -- but I'm glad you got it fixed :)